It seemed like the field stood still as Tayla’s corpse lay on the ground, as if the world was holding its breath. Stunned everyone stared at it as blood began to pool in the dirt around where her head used to be.

  “TAYLA NO!” Rickie bellowed at the top of his lungs, and just like that there was an almost audible inhale of breath and the moment passed. Everything snapped back into focus all at once. Rickie charged forward slamming his sword into the side of the monster, it sank into the black mass of a body but didn’t seem to travel too far through. He yanked it free and went in for the attack again.

  Meira shouted “BACK!” Right as she finished casting her lightning bolt spell, the air became thick with the smell of o-zone as electricity arced off of Meira’s hand and in a blink crossed the distance slamming into the body of the mauler. Alaric had heeded Meira’s word, but Rickie did not. He truly fell into his rage, instead of fighting it as he normally did. His close proximity to the mauler meant that he got secondary effects of being too close to the being that got struck. A quirk of lightning magic was that if it was strong enough, and there was a target close enough the lightning could chain to multiple opponents.

  Fortunately for the group, Meira’s lightning magic wasn’t strong enough to do full damage to a second target. Small arcs of lightning peeled off various parts of the mauler's body and dissipated into the surroundings. One of the arcs found Rickie’s body. Electricity coursed through Rickie’s body dealing damage as it traveled. As a barbarian in a rage though, as he took damage he grew stronger. He was able to shrug off the stunned debuff from the lightning and instead he just grew stronger as his health pool dipped.

  Something happened to Bjorn. After he watched Tayla’s corpse fall to the ground it was as if a fog had lifted. Over the last hour he grew more and more uneasy coming to a head when he first saw the mauler. At that point the unease turned into full blown fear, nearing panic. As he saw his friend fall to the ground dead it was as if that fear was gone. In its place was pure anger and determination. The icon that told him he had prompts was blinking. Instead of reading it he was filled with the overwhelming desire to kill this creature that stole his friend from him. He began to cast a spell.

  Through the 1 second cast time of his spell Bjorn finally had the wherewithal to use W.A.I.L.A. on the mauler.

  “Guys it’s level 41, we should run.” Bjorn said telepathically to the group. Once he thought that the mauler turned in his direction and started to move towards him. Luckily for Bjorn Alaric got in its way and stopped it from making it to him.

  Before anyone could do anything else, Bjorn's spell finished casting. Thick lines of darkness curled off his fingertips and stretched out coming in contact with the mauler. The darkness slid up to its face and covered where its eyes would be.

  “I agree. But Rickie isn’t hearing what we are saying, we already lost Tayla, we can’t lose him too.” Alaric’s voice came through the telepathic link that they shared with their war party. Even though he was standing right in front of the mauler and stopping it from progressing forward it wasn’t actively attacking Alaric. It kept trying to get by him by either stepping over him, sliding around him, or half hearted attacks to knock him away. After he communicated through the telepathic link that changed. The mauler changed its target from Bjorn and started attacking Alaric with renewed vigor.

  Meira finished casting a healing spell on Alaric, healing one of his numerous non life threatening wounds that he had sustained by standing in the way of the mauler. “Stop using the telepathy, it seems to be attracted to it somehow.” Meira shouted over the din of combat.

  Even though Bjorn’s darkness spell landed on the mauler it had no real discernible effect. The monster still had no issues finding and attacking whatever it was aiming at. Its limbs were a flurry of activity, changing shapes into different weapons and taking swings at both Alaric and Rickie. The malleable nature of the creature made it so its attacks came from different sides of its body and different angles of attacks. There was one thing that remained constant throughout the fight, and that was that the number of limbs never changed, it was always 8.

  Even though Rickie wasn’t the main focus of the mauler it still hit him plenty. The wounds just kept collecting on his body as the mauler’s limbs shifted between mauls, long spear like appendages, and even long sharp edged limbs. From the state of his body he had suffered wounds greater than a normal human would be able to endure.

  As the hundreds of small attacks rained down on their two front liners Bjorn and Meira were working frantically to figure out how to hurt this monster. Meira went through her normal cautery of spells to deal damage, they had some sort of effect, but not much, not what they would normally do. She alternated between offensive magic and healing magic trying to keep Rickie and Alaric in the fight.

  Bjorn first realized that his poison tipped arrows were having little to no effect on the mauler so he switched to magic. First he tried cast stone. During his time during the fight with the spiders it had become his go to damaging spell. So in this high stress situation that was his first reaction to go to. Which once again did little to nothing to the massive creature. Next he tried Encroaching darkness. It had the normal effect, it slowed the creature. Which was good because he had to move in close to use the spell on the creature. With the 15 foot range he was right up close. It threw an almost lazy attack at Bjorn, who had to throw himself backwards to avoid. He let his momentum carry him and ended with a kick as he rolled backwards landing neatly 10 feet further back and on his feet.

  He then cast his bark skin spell on Rickie, trying to help keep the berserker in the fight longer. Just in time too. Once he finished casting the spell the mauler turned one of its limbs into a whip like appendage and it struck Rickie in the chest, leaving a deep gouge running the length of his chest. His wound was long and deep, underneath Bjorn could see the white of his rib cage poking out. Even though the wound looked fatal Rickie shrugged it off and kept attacking rather ineffectually with his heavy two handed sword.

  Bjorn had only two offensive spells that could work against the creature. Light bolt, and weak desiccate. Seeing how weak desiccate hadn’t been useful up to this point in a fight he went for light bolt. As the streak of light shot forth from Bjorn’s hand and slammed into the side of the mauler it was the first sign of this fight that something actually affected the mauler. The spot where the light bolt had landed the flesh around it that had been a shrouded black changed color and remained a solid white color.

  The mauler let out a screech, it was hard to tell what the screech was, but if Bjorn was a gambling man that was a screech of pain. In retaliation it turned two of its limbs and recklessly threw them at Alaric. He was able to get his shield in the way but it sent him flying. He flew back several yards where his body slammed into a tree and dropped to the ground. The mauler pounced on him wanting to capitalize on the opening in Alaric’s defense.

  Luckily they weren’t alone. As a bubble of pale yellow appeared around Alaric’s body. The mauler’s form slammed into Meira’s air shield spell. Based on the description of the spell there was a finite amount of hp that the air shield had. Normally the air shield would last for a long time in the midst of battle as the opponents threw themselves into the shield over and over to try and break through.

  When the mauler’s heavy form slammed into the shield, thick spiderwebs spread throughout the entire shield as its integrity was already starting to fail. It raised the two mauls up and brought them down on the shield once again. The spider webs spread all the way through the shield. On the third blow the sound of breaking glass sounded throughout the battlefield as the shield collapsed.

  Even though it took 3 hits to break through the shield, the few precious seconds that it bought Alaric paid dividends. As it allowed him to fully recover. When the mauler finished its third attack its body pushed into the area that Alaric had occupied. He rolled out of the way and once again said telepathically. “Meira, I need you to cast weak mend bone. That last hit of his broke one of my forearm bones.”

  Without hesitation she started to cast the spell that Alaric requested on him. She knew that it was a mistake in the best of situations. If the spell did its work while the bone was not perfectly aligned the bone would fuse together in odd ways making his arm disfigured for life. In this case though, she knew that Alaric was right. They were no closer to finding out how to kill this monster so it was best to keep him in the fight. If his arm was broken he wouldn’t be able to fight to his full capabilities.

  As Bjorn was waiting for his light bolt to come off cooldown he started to cast his final offensive spell. Weak desiccate. Soft blue light began to shroud his hands as a thin line of water began to leave the body of the mauler and flow into his hands. It was only a thin line of water at first. As he channeled his spell the line turned into a torrent of water that was leaving the body of the mauler and flowing into his hands. The rate of transfer surprised Bjorn so much so that he lost his concentration and the line disappeared, sinking back into the mauler’s body.

  Even though the spell wasn’t channeled for long it had a very obvious impact on the mauler. It’s movements once fast, precise, and powerful, almost too much for them to handle. Had changed to more manageable, it still wasn’t sluggish by any stretch of the imagination. But the movements definitely were slower.

  “Whatever that was, do it again.” Meira shouted as her spell completed.

  “I cant. Not for 30 seconds, we need to hold out. Meira, it was a water spell. It might be weak to water magic.”

  She nodded and began casting. They finally had a game plan. It might be possible.

  The mauler was not to be discounted yet though. In a moment of luck for the mauler and with Rickie making a mistake the balance shifted once again in the mauler's favor.

  Alaric shifted his body so he was once again in between Meira and Bjorn and the mauler. This shift made the mauler turn as well to face the combatants leaving its side open to the thoughtless barbarian’s attacks. Or so he thought.

  Seeing the opening Rickie in his almost feral state rushed forward to capitalize on the opening. The mauler anticipated this attack, and it brushed off an old trick. One of its many limbs turned into a scythe and started to slash at Rickie.

  Bjorn saw the attack coming and tried to warn Rickie. “No! Stop!” He shouted out, but his warning fell on deaf ears.

  Rickie rushed directly into the trap. His close proximity made it hard to see the attack coming. The scythe came down and sliced clean through Rickie, chopping the man in half. Both halves of his body went flying in slightly different directions away from the fight.

  The tenaciousness of barbarians could never be overestimated though. As even after his body had been cut in half his upper half didn’t stop moving towards the object of his rage, dragging his intestines behind him in a long line. He drug himself across the field trying to get near the chaotic battle between his friends and the monster that had already robbed them of one of their party.

  Meira, completed casting her ice shard spell. A dagger-like shard of ice shot forth from her outstretched hand slamming into the side of the mauler. Where the shard impacted the mauler ice began to spread throughout the writhing darkness that made up its body. The cold from the ice began to spread through its body, soon freezing its limb. Which broke off when it tried to retract it back into its body. It did not reform.

  Bjorn watched in horror as Rickie’s determined upper body drug itself through the dirt. The only other thing he had his mind on was watching the timer that indicated the cooldown on the weak desiccate spell. It had 10 seconds remaining.

  He started to cast his light bolt spell.

  9.

  The mauler turned back to hammering on Alaric. The defense specialist doing his best to survive and distract.

  8.

  The healing light that surrounded Meira’s hands blinked out of existence as her spell finished targeting Alaric once again.

  7.

  Bjorn’s light bolt completed, streaking away from his outstretched hand slamming into the mauler’s side.

  5.

  Rickie’s upper half finally gave up and fell to the ground dead.

  4.

  The mauler redoubled its efforts, slamming itself down into Alaric over and over.

  1.

  One of the limbs turned into a maul and it slammed into Alaric’s shield in a sweeping motion knocking him flying out from underneath the monster.

  As soon as the timer hit zero Bjorn began channeling the weak desiccate spell and the torrent of water began pouring out of the mauler once again, quickly crossing the distance between him and the mauler.

  Alaric’s body slammed into a tree once again and fell slumped to the ground. He began to stir as soon as he hit the ground.

  The mauler still had a trick that they hadn’t seen before. Instead of rushing after Alaric it turned its dark head towards the dwarf slowly getting back to his feet and it pointed one of its limbs at Alaric. The dark limb formed a shape like a spear, it had to pull in two of its remaining limbs to accomplish this task, only it was around a foot in diameter. The limb then quickly shrunk in diameter. For every inch that it shrunk in diameter it grew in length by 2 yards.

  The telescoping limb shot forward quickly crossing the distance between itself and Alaric’s still rising body. The sharp spear-like end to the limb slammed into Alaric’s midsection punching through the chainmail there protecting him and then through his body underneath. When the limb slammed into Alaric it still had over 8 inches in diameter left. Once it punched all the way through Alaric’s gut it retracted the limb leaving a massive hole in his gut.

  Watching Alaric get skewered almost made Bjorn lose his concentration once again. Somehow he gritted his teeth and kept channeling. As the steam of water poured out of the mauler and into Bjorn it grew slower and slower. Its movements now sluggish compared to the lightning fast movements from earlier.

  It left Alaric’s body where it was and turned towards Bjorn. The monster began to charge at him, quickly closing the distance between the two. As it moved forward he at the same time began to retreat, trying to create that distance between him and the monster.

  “Don’t stop channeling.” Meira thought to Bjorn through their telepathic link. The mauler stopped in its tracks and turned towards Meira. The mauler shot forward towards her. Its movements were slower than it was before, but the mauler was still faster than Meira. Of the group she was always the weakest and slowest when it came to a physical fight.

  She was expecting the lunging attack through and threw herself backwards. Even though it was slower and she was prepared she didn’t fully dodge the attack. She threw herself backwards away from the charging monster trying to execute the same movement that Bjorn had done earlier in the fight to evade an attack. Her choice to avoid putting any stat points into her physical stats finally caught up to her.

  As the mauler lunged forward one of its limbs turned into a sword and it made a sweeping attack at Meira’s body that was flying through the air. If it had been earlier in the fight she would have died on the spot, but the weak desiccate had worked wonders by then. The sword-like arm swung through the air where her head had once been, missing that entirely. Instead it continued onward slicing through her leg that she was using to right herself and try to land on her feet.

  When she landed she toppled awkwardly sideways as her leg was now severed right below the knee. The mauler’s body flew past where she landed as it threw its entire weight into the attack trying to quickly put an end to the elf’s life. It landed heavily as its strength was quickly being sapped by Bjorn’s spell. It turned preparing for another lunge, this time at the toppled elf.

  The attack never came through as Bjorn’s spell finally finished the job and the mauler now completely devoid of water collapsed to the ground dead. Bjorn began to run over to where Meira lay. In a pained voice she stopped him. “No, don’t worry about me. Go to Alaric.”

  In his panic to check on Meira he almost completely forgot about the state his best friend was in. He turned mid stride and rushed over to where the dwarf lay. After he got struck by the mauler he hadn’t gotten up. He lay with his back against the same tree he got skewed against.

  Rough ragged breaths made their way past his lips. Littered on the ground around him were 4 empty vials. The few remnant drops of liquid that every drank potion had was red, easily identifying them as healing potions. In his hand was a 5th one. But by this point he was too weak to bring it up to his lips to drink that one as well.

  Bjorn grabbed the potion from Alaric’s hand and began to move it to his lips. Alaric closed his lips and shook his head weakly. “No.” He said in an equally weak voice. “The other 4 did nothing.” He paused to cough weakly. “You’d only be prolonging my suffering.”

  Bjorn lowered the potion, tears streaming down his cheeks.

  “Take care of her…” He paused to take another raspy breath. “She is the best of us.” One more breath. “You both were.” His eyes now distant settled on Bjorn’s face.

  He found himself unable to talk, the knot in his throat impossible to push past. Instead he just nodded down at his friend.

  Alaric took one final breath and just like that he was gone. His hands going limp, relaxing. His head slowly drifted to the side as the strength that had once held it upright fled from the shattered body.

  Bjorn reached out with his hand, slowly and gently he used it to close Alaric’s now unseeing eyes. He hung his head and let his grief out.

  It was several hours when Meira’s voice cut through the haze that had settled over Bjorn’s mind. “Bjorn, love, I need you to come back to me. I need your strength now more than ever.”

  It was her words and the tone behind them that finally got through to Bjorn and brought him back to his senses. He had been crying over Alaric’s now cold corpse for hours. He slowly and stiffly drug himself back to his feet and looked around, seeing nothing as night had fully fallen across the land and this was one of the rare nights where none of the 6 moons could be seen. It took several tries but he finally was able to cast the simple light spell.

  The light was blinding but it brought into focus his surroundings. At his feet lay Alaric’s body. Less than 30 feet away lay the corpse of the monster that had taken his family from him. It fell still near where Rickie stopped moving. Meira was nowhere to be seen.

  “Come to me please, love. I need you to help me to my feet.” Her voice called out from the far side past the mauler’s body. It was more than enough for Bjorn to confirm the direction that she was in, so he started to walk that way. As he drew near to her his light illuminated her body leaning against a tree. Her skin was a slightly lighter shade of cream than it normally was, but she looked mostly fine. Her right leg was missing right below her knee. The swing from the mauler had cleanly sliced through the skin, the bone, and then muscle underneath.

  “We need to get away from here for the night. We are in no state to fight another creature. We can’t get caught by one.” She said, her leg was no longer bleeding as new fresh skin had grown over the stump where it had once been. A feat that was without a doubt thanks to her healing magic.

  Bjorn shook his head. “We can’t leave them.” His voice raspy and weak from the tears that were still trickling down his cheek.

  “I know it seems harsh, but we can’t stay here tonight. We can come back in the morning, we should come back in the morning. But the risk isn’t worth it. We don’t have the strength right now to do anything about it. So please listen to me love, we need to leave this place.” She could see the stubbornness and unwillingness to leave written plainly on his face. She tried to stand and walk over to Bjorn, but she wasn’t used to only using one leg and tumbled forwards twice before Bjorn stepped forward to help her to her feet. They stood there facing each other and she looked deeply into his bloodshot eyes. “Please.”

  Bjorn nodded, and turned to the side, he put Meira’s arm around his shoulder and became the support she needed to move forward. They walked together through the pitch black for what seemed like hours before they found a semi sheltered alcove where they could stop and rest for the night. They didn’t even worry about setting up the tent or making a fire. Bjorn pulled a blanket out from his bag of holding and wrapped it around himself then he sat with his back against bare stone. He opened it up and Meira positioned her body against his and he wrapped her up in his arms. It didn’t take long for both of them to fall asleep.

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  It was weird, Bjorn expected his sleep to be plagued by images of the mauler, or even the images of his dead friends. But his sleep was nothing of the sort, it was short, restful, and blessedly void of dreams.

  When he awoke there was a weak pale light along the horizon. He looked down at Meira who was snuggled up close against his body, conserving warmth, still asleep. Although he wanted to get up and make his way back to where his friends' bodies lay he didn’t want to disturb Meira. So instead he sat there and watched as one of the suns started to slowly crest the mountains off in the distance.

  There were 3 peaks in total where the sun crested. The mountains were covered in tall thick pines. Further down the peaks he could see a large waterfall that was spilling down a cliff. The waterfall formed a river which led down to a larger river that ran along the base of the mountains. Above the mountains the sky was filled with nimbus clouds that were like little islands. There were thin wispy cirrus clouds above them. The sunlight bounced off of the clouds painting them in rich red, yellows, and oranges. The entire thing could only be described with one word. Beautiful.

  Yet the beauty only made Bjorn angry. Angry that the world had the gall to paint such a beautiful vista right after such a painful tragedy. The injustice that Tayla, Alaric, and Rickie would never see such a view again.

  They stayed like that for a while before Meira finally stirred. Once she was awake they stood, Bjorn put the blanket away, then they made their slow way back to the site of battle the night before. As they drew near they could see signs of their struggle. A displaced patch of grass here, a 3 inch thick broken branch there.

  Finally they found their battleground. Surprisingly it hadn’t been disturbed at all. They could have sworn for sure that something would have come along and pilfered some meat off of one of the 4 corpses. But no, everything was right where they left it the night before. Without saying a word Bjorn pulled out a shovel and shoved its head into the ground.

  There are many benefits to having his magically enhanced body, this is one of them, digging in the rocky dirt on the side of a mountain. He worked methodically clearing away the top layer of rough mountain grass to expose the dirt below it. It was still difficult but easier than it should be to dig in the soil that was mostly just rock. After 15 minutes he had a hole 3 feet across, 2 feet tall, and 3 feet deep.

  He was going to just keep working but Meira interrupted him. "I can take over for you. You are more mobile. Can I get you to collect the remains of our friends?” Her voice was soft, as if she was talking to a wounded animal to calm it down.

  Bjorn stood there eyes down cast for a few seconds before he nodded. He lifted himself out of the hole then he helped Meira down into the hole he had been digging. She picked up right where Bjorn left off.

  He started with the one farthest away from their hole. And that was the body of Tayla. He walked over to where her cold body rested and he knelt down to pick her up. When her mangled corpse fell to the ground it landed in an awkward position, with her legs splayed off to the side and her arm propped up. It had landed with her wrist curled in so her elbow was up in the air. He was able to get his hands underneath her body and lift her. She was lighter than she should have been. That likely had to do with her missing a large section of her torso.

  It was awkward carrying her body as rigor mortis set in, and her limbs were locked in place, her entire body being stiff as a board. It was a bit of a to do, but he was able to get her over to the hole. After he set her down gingerly he went back out to retrieve her arm.

  Next up was Rickie, he was the easiest one to move. His legs were light, and so was his torso as he had nearly been cut in half. It was the same story with Rickie as it was with Tayla, his body was locked into a position due to rigor mortis. The hardest part with Rickie was that his eyes were open. Even though Bjorn tried to do so he wasn’t able to get his eyelids to close. So his body had a sightless stare into the void as he carried him.

  The most difficult one in both terms of carrying and emotionally was Alaric. He was the one who was closest to the hole so he didn’t have to be moved far. His body was the most intact one of the bunch, that being him only having a gaping hole in his chest. So he weighed the most. But emotionally he was the hardest one for Bjorn to move.

  Since he came to the Eld there have been 5 people he cared for the most. That being Medera, Alaric, Meira, Tayla, and lastly Rick. Of those 5 people, the one who influenced him the most was without a doubt Alaric. He had grown so much over his time in the Eld and much of it was at the hand of Alaric. He was not only a friend, a teacher, a helper, but he was like a brother. They stood side by side throughout almost everything that had happened to Bjorn during his time in the Eld. To see his brother laying there, cold, and stiff, it was tough.

  He took the longest but eventually Bjorn found both the physical strength and metaphorical strength to move Alaric and place him near the hole Meira was digging. She had completed the first hole, it was roughly the size and shape of Tayla’s corpse and 5 feet deep. She then moved on to another hole, Bjorn joined in with Meira’s work and soon they were working side by side to dig their holes.

  Several hours later they had 3 holes dug, each one matched to each of their friends. Even with Tayla’s diminished height, Alaric’s hole was still the shortest. They dug the hole for Rickie the same size as his completely intact body. They soon placed all three of them into their respective holes.

  Alaric was the last one they placed in the hole. As Bjorn was about to climb out, Meira stopped him. She pointed down to Alaric’s left hand, which was held in a small cupped position. “What is that?” She asked in a husky voice. Kneeling down he searched Alaric’s hand. Lo and behold there sat the same small white gem that Bjorn had now seen twice. It was the crystal that Alaric had used to soul bind the portable pocket to himself.

  Bjorn grabbed it and held it out for Meira to see. “Oh. Even in death he was thinking about us. As far as I understand it, even in death a soul bound item is bound to the soul. So without him removing that gem before death we wouldn’t have access to the portable pocket.” As she spoke another tear rolled down her cheek.

  She drew in a breath. “We should probably take anything that is useful off of their bodies. I know they would want us to do so.”

  Bjorn gave her a serious look. “Why?” His voice was horse with disuse. It was the first time he had spoke since the night before.

  “I know what you mean by your question. No it is not grave robbing. I know for a fact that each and every one of them would want us to take anything and everything that could be considered useful off of their bodies. They would want us to take it so that we could put it to use, or sell it for the gold value, making our lives just that much easier.” She could see Bjorn’s face screw up in disgust. “Don’t be like that, if I die I expect you to do the exact same for me. I don’t know what your death traditions are on earth, but here in the Eld that is one of the traditions.”

  Bjorn stood there staring at Meira for a moment before he relented. It felt grisly and wrong to do so, but he isn’t one to spit in the face of tradition. “We only take what we need, and what is worth something.” Meira looked like she was going to argue, but she saw the resolute look on Bjorn’s face and relented.

  He quickly went through his friends pockets and took anything useful off their bodies. There wasn’t much in the way for useful items other than a few magical items. The one filled with the most useful items was the portable pocket that Alaric had owned briefly. Where they found the items that had the most useful was in Tayla’s and Rickie’s pack. They removed all their worldly possessions, taking all the coins, weapons, and really anything of value. They kept the items separated so after they finished they could place them with their owners.

  With that taken care of, Meira took out a torch and lit its end. “The next thing for us to do is burn the bodies.” Before Bjorn could ask why or object she pressed on. “This world has tons of people who would gladly disturb our friends' rest. There are a few ways we can put them to rest for good. If I knew the correct life spells I could do it, but I don’t. If we had a kind death mage he could do it, but there is always a chance he defiles their corpses. The final way that I know of is that we can burn the bodies.”

  “This isn’t a guarantee, it will weaken the chance that death magic will take ahold and raise our friends from the dead. But there is still a chance that a powerful death mage can come along and twist their bodies. What this will do for sure though is cleanse the connection between the soul and the body. Making it impossible for a twisted death mage to torment their souls by attaching it back to the body.”

  Bjorn nodded and pulled a small decanter that was filled with oil that they used for cooking. He handed it to Meira and stood there as she poured its contents over the remains of their friends. She knelt down and touched her torch to the body of Rickie. The oil caught fire immediately and very quickly engulfed the body. She quickly hobbled between the holes, burning each body in turn. For the last one she dropped the torch down on Alaric’s body, letting it fully engulf him.

  She stood and hopped back over to where Bjorn was standing. “If you want to say something now is the time.”

  Bjorn stood there looking down at 3 of the people he considered his family burn. At first the smell that first hit was the smell of the cloth and leather that they were wearing going up in smoke. Soon the smell of their hair going up and smoke lent a heavy stench of sulfur. As the burning continued a putrid and almost sickening sweet smell began to fill the air. It was hard to describe, it was almost like a mix between burnt pork or leather cooking over a fire. The mixed smell was strong enough to make Bjorn nauseated. But over the last day he hadn’t eaten or drank anything, so he just had the feeling of wanting to puke, but he never actually did so.

  He drew in a breath to speak and coughed at the stench. Being an intelligent person he walked around the fire and stood next to Meira, who had already moved to the other side of the fire. The smell remained but it was greatly diminished. “When I came to the Eld I was as helpless as a new born lamb. Weak, dumb, and ill-equipped to handle the harsh reality of this world. Alaric and Tayla spent the last year and a half teaching me how to take care of myself and how to survive. It was more than that though. They taught me how to live, smile, love, and care. I will never forget the lessons they taught me, I will never forget those who taught me how to be a person worth knowing. They were the best, kindest, and friendliest of everyone I have met here in the Eld. The world has grown just a little darker without them in it.”

  He fell silent letting his emotions deaden his surroundings. “That was well said.” Meira said as she put her hand gently on Bjorn’s back. “We will grieve for them now that they are gone, but they were better people than either of us deserved. I will miss all of you. I wish you the best in your next life as you had in this one.”

  They stood in silence for a few minutes grieving for their lost friends. Meira was the one who broke the silence. “You should go and find what you can find that is useful out of the mauler. It is a unique and deadly creature, you might be able to find something. Once we finish here we should move, I don’t think we are overly safe as we are right now. We should let them burn fully before we bury them. They will likely burn for another 15 minutes, so I will watch. You go dig.”

  Bjorn didn’t even think to question Meira’s knowledge of how long a body will burn for. Instead he took her words and walked over to the body of the mauler. He looked down at the monster that killed Alaric, Tayla, and Rickie, and for all he knew Medera as well.

  There was no hesitation, before he took one of his daggers and plunged it into the body of the creature. In life its body was hard to pin down, it was almost smokey, and the flesh underneath when he was able to hit it felt almost like he was trying to cut rubber. Now that it was dead though the color and smokey look fled. The skin underneath the black was a sickly pale white color. Its form was mostly the same as it was in life, only a lot of the size and intimidating stature was gone. It looked like the body deflated almost like a balloon.

  With almost glee in Bjorn’s eyes he plunged his dagger into the flesh of the mauler. The consistency of the flesh also underwent a change. It had lost the rubbery feeling that it once had. Now the flesh underneath parted almost as if it no longer wanted to remain whole. Underneath the skin was the exact same type of substance that the skin was made up of. Finding that odd he began making another cut. The ease of cutting made it so in two swipes of his dagger he had cut almost a foot through the flesh of the mauler. There was no change to the flesh underneath.

  Finding this extremely odd he began cutting around finding different areas of the mauler’s body where they were exactly the same. This was odd because before when he and Medera killed the small mauler its body had normal blood, guts, and other organs in it. Bjorn began cutting the creature looking for the object he already knew it was going to have. It’s core. It didn’t take him long to find where the mauler’s core was. It was almost exactly in the center of the monster.

  The core was about the size of a grapefruit and ever so slightly oblong. The core itself had a clear shell around the exterior of it. On the inside of the core there was a small green dense cloud that was slowly swirling in a lazy pattern. It was almost mesmerizing watching the cloud slowly drift through its confines.

  Bjorn completely ignored the fact that he stumbled upon his first legendary rarity item. His eyes were drawn to the last two lines of description. “This item had been heavily modified by an enchanter…” He didn’t know why, but when he read that line it sent a chill down his back. One thing was abundantly clear though, this mauler was not a natural creature. It was made by someone.

  The thought gave Bjorn pause. But only for a few moments. He ended up just putting the mauler’s core in his bag of holding and finished digging through the mauler’s corpse. He didn’t find anything else of use, the rest of its flesh was the exact same as it had been on his way to the core.

  By the time he made his way back to Meira the fire had died down fully. He found her above the pit shoveling dirt down on top of the remains of Tayla. The hole was already mostly filled in. Bjorn wordlessly started to help her fill in the hole.

  With everything else taken care of there was only 1 thing left to take care of, and that was the insistent blinking in the corner of his vision. Bjorn mentally clicked on it once again and his vision flooded with prompts. It was especially bad because he had been ignoring his progress for a while.

  Congratulations you have advanced in the skill: Cooking, you are now skill level 11. Your attempts to make an edible meal have increased by 11%.

  Congratulations you have advanced from skill level beginner to skill level novice in the skill: cooking. As such you have gained a perk:

  Congratulations you have advanced from a beginner cook to a novice cook. You have gained a perk. The meals you prepare will require 10% less food to meet any dietary requirements that the person eating needs. This also means 10% less food needed to feel full

  You have advanced your skill level in archery, reaching skill level 25. Damage from arrows you shoot is increased by 37.5% over base damage.

  Congratulations you have advanced from a novice archer to an apprentice archer. You have gained a perk. Attacks that you deal against armored opponents have a 10% chance to ignore 25% of their armor value.

  Congratulations you have advanced your skill level in heavy armor, reaching skill level 12. The effectiveness of your heavy armor will be increased by 36%. Your 4% movement speed decrease per piece of heavy armor is still maintained.

  You have advanced your skill level in herb-lore. reaching skill level 18. The efficacy of plants and herbs you collect will increase by 54%.

  You have advanced your skill level in stealth, reaching skill level 7. You will now be 28% harder to spot while stealthing.

  You have advanced your skill level in Light Armor, reaching skill level 8. When wearing light armor your defensive value for the light armor is increased by 8%.

  You have advanced your skill level in small blades, reaching skill level 8. Your attacks with daggers and knives now deal 16% more damage over base value. Additionally critical strikes done with your small blades will deal 8% more damage.

  You have advanced your skill level in swordsmanship, reaching skill level 12. Your attacks with swords now deal 48% more damage over base value.

  You have advanced your skill level in tracking, reaching skill level 5. The tracks that creatures leave as they travel through the world make just a little more sense to you.

  Congratulations you have advanced your skill: War leader, reaching skill level 7. The bonus offered by this skill is not a static thing. Spend your war points to gain your bonuses.

  Congratulations you have advanced one of the core tenets of your being. You have advanced your tenet: Vindictive. Due to the way that you have been treated in this world and those you have interacted with you have only found a few people that you love. This has made your attachments to those you love that much stronger. You now will deal 40% increased damage instead of 25% against someone who has killed a loved one recently. Additionally you deal 20% less damage instead of 10% less damage against anyone or anything not involved with their deaths. This effect will only trigger if you know who it was that is responsible for the death.

  You have found a critical weakness in your enemy. Water magic had a significantly increased effect against this creature.

  You have slayed an adult mauler.

  Your actions killing this modified mauler has alerted its creator to the fact that the mauler has been killed.

  Level up!

  Level up!

  Level up!

  You have 9 (base 12) skill points to allocate.

  You have advanced your skill level in water magic. reaching skill level 13. You have unlocked the ability to learn higher level spells.

  Congratulations you have advanced from a beginner hydromancer to a novice hydromancer. You have gained a perk. Your water spells have 10% decreased cooldown. You also gain a 5% resistance to water magic.

  For killing Adult mauler level 41 you are awarded 250 war points.

  Congratulations you have finally met the requirements for your synergy: Latent potential. Would you like to activate your synergy? Yes/No.

  Bjorn only thought about it for half a second before he mentally clicked on the yes button. A reddish orange light began to pour out of Bjorn’s body and against his will began to float. For what felt like eons his mind began to wander traveling out of his body and into the cosmos exploring all of the various mysteries that are hard to grasp for the human mind.

  After an eternity his mind began to rocket backwards heading towards the world that he left. It slammed back into the Eld and back into his body. Somehow he felt different. All of the knowledge and understanding his mind had comprehended a moment before began to quickly fade, leaving behind it a tremendous sense of loss.

  His body began to slowly float towards the ground. When he touched down something felt wrong. He was closer to the ground than he had been before, and a tremendous force on his right hip began to pull him down. Try as he might he wasn’t able to offset the force pulling him down and he fell sideways, collapsing to the ground.

  “What did you do?” Meira asked him.

  “Huh?” Bjorn picked his head up.

  “Why are you so small?” She bent over and gave him a hand getting him into a seated position. “And why do you look so short?”

  Bjorn wasn’t sure what she was talking about. It was all nonsense, but for some reason it was now harder to breathe. Looking down at his body he found that she was right. Before he had filled out his armor quite nicely, a full, strong body he had built over the years he was in this world. Now his armor hung loosely around his once muscle bound chest.

  “I don’t know what happened. I just activated my synergy.”

  “What is a synergy?”

  Instead of answering he pulled up his character sheet.